454. Reasons to Challenge Yourself with Mission 48

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Prepare to be inspired by the extraordinary journey of fitness entrepreneur Kelsey Lensman. In this episode, Lesley Logan chats with Kelsey about pushing boundaries, embracing challenges, and empowering women to discover their true potential through diverse fitness experiences. From completing 48 fitness competitions in 48 states in 48 days, to her mission of expanding women's limits, Kelsey's story will motivate you to step out of your comfort zone and take on new challenges.


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In this episode you will learn about:

  • How Kelsey moved from collegiate athletics to discovering a new purpose.
  • The inspiration behind completing 48 competitions in 48 states in 48 days.
  • Strategies to inspire women to challenge themselves physically and mentally.
  • Insights into Kelsey's upcoming 100-mile run and the growth of her company.
  • Practical advice on signing up for challenges that scare you.


Episode References/Links:


Guest Bio:

Kelsey Lensman is a fitness entrepreneur and founder of Xpand Your Limits, dedicated to empowering women to challenge themselves physically and mentally. An Ohio native, Kelsey was an athlete from a young age—playing basketball, volleyball, and rowing for Ohio State. After leaving collegiate sports to pursue sports medicine, she faced an identity crisis that reignited her passion for fitness. She launched Mission 48, completing 48 fitness competitions in 48 states over 48 days—from powerlifting to Spartan races—to inspire women and girls to build self-confidence and step out of their comfort zones. Currently training for a 100-mile run, Kelsey is expanding her company into four divisions: Strength, Endurance, Outdoors, and Resilience, offering women challenges like lifting competitions, endurance races, and resilience training. With a book set to release next year, she remains committed to helping women discover their potential by breaking personal limits.

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Episode Transcript:

Kelsey Lensman 0:00  

I have to continually remind myself, Kels, you just did something epic. You pursued. You had the courage. And I don't say this for me, but I say this for also people listening. You have the courage that not many people would have ever even had to pursue that, let alone to finish, let alone to start. 


Lesley Logan 0:18  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. 


Lesley Logan 0:57  

Be It babe, get ready. Get ready to be inspired. Get ready to feel like you're having coffee with two of your girlfriends. Get ready to feel empowered and also to be challenged in the best way. Today, our guest is Kelsey Lensman, and I, I think I want to be her best friend now. I do. I do. I have, like, already followed her. I've hit the notifications bell. Whatever she is doing, I want in I don't know that she'll get me to do a couple of the things that she does, but there's a couple things I think I might be inclined to do because I'm inspired by her and her energy and her enthusiasm to support women and help women challenge themselves in a way, to see like what they're fully capable of. And so get ready. I mean, really, you're going to be inspired and empowered by Kelsey Lensman. Here she is. 


Lesley Logan 1:44  

All right, Be It babe. I am really excited, because when I talked to today's guest, I was so impressed, so wowed, so in awe. I was like, how did you do what you did? We have to talk about this. I need to know more, and I wanted to share that with you. So Kelsey Lensman, thank you so much for being here today. Can you tell them who you are and what you rock at? 


Kelsey Lensman 2:00  

Oh, man, that's a load of question. No, first, I just want to say thank you for having me, and everybody that's listening, thank you for continuing to listen in. I know that she just has so much gold here. So I'm excited to share just a little part of my journey to hopefully inspire you to keep thinking forward. But to give you guys a little bit of background, I won't go into the whole story, but I own a company, we actually just rebranded, it's called Xpand Your Limits, and we do all women's different strength events, endurance events, and just events that challenge women outside of their comfort zone to really show themselves what they're capable of. And that aligns with my own mission, personally, too. And this is where Lesley and I connected is last year I did a crazy thing. It's either crazy or amazing, whoever you talk to, but it was called Mission 48 and I did the 48 different fitness competitions in 48 states, and the kicker was in 48 days. And it was all about really inspiring women and young girls to really build true self confidence, not just what people see on Instagram, but like actually building that within themselves, to really just step out of their comfort zone, do hard things and show yourself what you're capable of. Then we raise money for charity and all of that. So as you can tell, I'm just really passionate about just breaking beliefs of what people are capable of, and just seeing what's already within you and pulling it out, in my opinion. 


Lesley Logan 3:08  

Okay, it's kind, it's freaking amazing. Anything in 48 days in 48 different places, it's already hard. So when you say fitness competitions, are we talking about the muscle thing? Are we talking about like a race? What are we talking about? And then also, I guess we all want to know, how did you find one per day, or is there two in a day?


Kelsey Lensman 3:29  

This is what's wild. So originally, well, let me give context. So it was everything from a half marathon to a power lifting meet to an Olympic lifting meet, no body building, so no flexing on stage there. But it was all physical challenges. We did mountain biking, rocking anything that you could think of, Spartan Races, all the crazy stuff. 


Lesley Logan 3:46  

Okay, that's cool, because since it wasn't the same thing every day, it didn't get, it didn't get boring. It also didn't like, you know, and then also, it made it more possible to challenge yourself in a multiple different facets, but also get them in 48 days, because it could be a mountain biking, swimming, running, okay, very cool.


Kelsey Lensman 4:02  

Yeah. And that's always different, though, because it's like, I mean, I give so much gratitude to the people that do the same thing every single day, like, it's amazing. However, when it's different, you have to be ready for everything, you know. Like, it's not just okay, I show up at this time. I do this, I do that. It's like, no, no, you got to be ready for the curve balls. Because yesterday you did mountain biking. Today you're doing half a marathon, and tomorrow you're lifting really heavy. And as you know, in the fitness world, all of that's kind of separate. It's like, you're either a power lifter or you do Pilates, like, everything is separate, yeah, but it's like, (inaudible) it all, you know? 


Lesley Logan 4:31  

And also, it doesn't need to be like, I it shocks people all the time when they find out I actually go to a gym and lift heavy weights, I'm like, no, I do my Pilates actually lets me do that without as I get older, without injury, it's very helpful. You don't have to, but we do we all go, this is my lane. This is how I train. And there's a nice certainty around that. So I have to imagine being ready for everything there might have been, were there some days where you're a little bit nervous, because it would be really hard to train for all of those things, getting into the events. 


Kelsey Lensman 5:02  

Oh, yeah. I mean, so right now, currently, while I'm talking to you, I'm training for 100-miler, which is crazy to me, because I'm not a runner. I do not like it. I am lifting more, and I'm like, okay, you gotta do something outside your comfort zones. I'm like, full send. Actually, I'm going to Arizona over by you.


Lesley Logan 5:17  

Oh my goodness, to do 100 miles in the desert. That's not boring.


Kelsey Lensman 5:23  

But I share that to say when you kind of set a crazy goal, you just have to go for it, and you got to be ready for it. And that was what's weird, what was wild with Mission 48 is there were days where I don't know if I can finish this, I don't know if I can physically endure this, and I didn't just want it to be easy for me of like, oh, you know, rainbows and sunshine. I'm just gallivanting across the country. I wanted to show the behind the scenes of, yes, the high days, but also the, oh, I don't know if I can do this, doubting days, or physically, hey, I got to persist through because I think that that's what connects with people's journeys. It's like a lot of times, people will see the outcome, they'll see what they see on social media, but they don't understand what has gone into it, because they haven't been in your shoes. They haven't been in the behind the scenes, right? And so I think it's important to me to share that behind the scenes detail and to share the transparency of it. Because I always say, like, I'm not on a pedestal. I'm just a regular girl from Ohio that has a lot of drive and a lot of commitment and is willing to take an action step and be courageous about something. So I want to really give that to other people. Like, hey, if Kels can, you can too, you just got to be willing to kind of endure the process with it, you know? 


Lesley Logan 6:28  

Yeah. So, a girl from Ohio, how did you even come up with this idea? Were you always into fitness? Did anyone else before you do 24 events in 24 days? Like, how did, how did you even get because I think a lot of people do see the outcome and they go, wow, that's amazing, and they can be inspired. But also setting big goals, then you have to do the thing to do the goal, and so a lot of people get stuck there. So how did that even come about? 


Kelsey Lensman 6:52  

Yeah, okay, let me give you a little backstory, because I think this will really give value to your audience, too. So growing up, I was an athlete. I mean, I would play basketball and volleyball, but I never, Lesley, pictured myself as the best. I always had to work pretty hard. I always had to. I wasn't just I came out of the womb and was the best athlete in the world, you know. So I never pictured myself as that version of me that could do all these crazy things. It just wasn't, wasn't even in my field of awareness. And so when I went to Ohio State from high school, I ended up randomly rowing for the Ohio State rowing team my freshman year, which is so random, but I share that to say my freshman to sophomore year, I decided to choose my career path, which was sports medicine. And then they were like, okay, you either continue rowing on Ohio State Athletics or you choose your career. And I'm like, I'm not going to be a professional rower. That's not in my, that's not in my cards. So I decided to choose my career path, but in that time frame was, is I didn't realize how much my identity was tied to being an athlete, that when I had it and then I didn't have it, I just lost myself. I was like, whoa. I didn't know who Kelsey was, outside of going to practice having somebody tell you what to do, working out, I felt, not just physically lost, I felt mentally, emotionally lost. In one moment, and this spurred everything for me, I just got out of a really challenging relationship. I stopped playing sports, and I remember walking into my bathroom, and I looked in my bathroom mirror, and I looked into my eyes, and I just didn't see who was looking back. It looked like a foreign person to me. Not only did I physically not look like myself, I didn't have that fire in my eyes. I didn't have that passion. I didn't see Kelsey, if that makes sense. 


Lesley Logan 8:37  

It totally does. I remember tiring from a sport, and you're like, okay, so what do I do now? I'm not working towards anything. Yeah, yeah. 


Kelsey Lensman 8:45  

It was so weird for me, you know. So in that moment, I just remember saying this, I was like, Kelsey, you have to get you good. And I didn't even know what that meant, you good. I don't know what that means, but I remember saying that moment, okay, I'm not working out, you know that's healthy, like, you know that's beneficial for you. So from an extent. So just get back to working out. And I share this because when I was getting back the quote-unquote working out, I was that girl in the weight room, had no idea what I was doing, didn't want anybody to look at her lift because I thought I was doing everything wrong. I was the girl googling workouts. And, I think people see me today and it's like, oh, she's always been like that. I was like, no, I was that girl, just like you might be, that girl on the other side of this that really doesn't really know what she's doing or wants to improve, but doesn't know what to take that step. So long story short, long story long, is then into, going into my junior-senior year, I was working out. I was feeling myself better. I ended up, randomly, and I don't condone this for everybody, but it was a big part of my journey is I remember somebody came up to me in the gym and they tapped me on the shoulder, and they're like, hey, Kels, have you ever thought about competing? I was like, competing in what? What are you even talking about? And they said, bodybuilding. And I, literally, Lesley, I laughed in their face. I was like, you think I can compete in bodybuilding? You are out of your dang ol' mind. Because I just, I didn't see visually like that just wasn't, wasn't even in my work.


Lesley Logan 10:04  

I had someone ask me that at the gym too, and I was like, I don't like salmon and chicken that much, so it's, that's a no, but I appreciate, I'm flattered and.


Kelsey Lensman 10:14  

It was just so, it was so wild, I just didn't think about it. But once again, I talk about the nudge a lot like kind of the thoughts that we think about when we're on our about to go to bed, that we're like, oh, what if we could do this? And so I pushed it down for a few months, and then the feeling of, what if, what if you could compete, girl? What if you could pursue that? And finally, after four months, I didn't tell a single soul, but I hired a coach. I was so nervous, I just had no idea what I was doing. But I started the process of it, and I told a lot of people, it wasn't me competing in bodybuilding, it wasn't the body that got me that it wasn't the body like anything about the physical changes, but it was that I did something that I didn't think that I could do. And I went through the process, and I learned, okay, you have to say no to some things that maybe previous Kelsey, the people pleaser, would have said yes to, but I have a goal, and I'm focused, and the now Kelsey, she's got to say no to that thing, and she has to really be focused on where she's headed. And so it was a lot of growth for me, Les, from I guess, a physical standpoint, but also more of a mental, emotional individual. Then my senior year, that's when I competed and I realized I was from the medical world, and so I saw everything siloed. The nutrition was siloed, the fitness was siloed, the mental side of it. And I'm like, why is it like you're a whole human? You know, it just didn't make sense to me. So that's when I started my company and all that. And then that's what led into Mission 48 is, I know that was your question. Let me get back to it real quick. But that's, what led into Mission 48 is I was, had my business for a few years. I was just kind of feeling, not necessarily burnt out, but I knew there was something more than just tapping on a computer, but I didn't know what that thing was. And I ended up watching a documentary, and highly recommend it. It's called Iron Cowboy. He did 50, listen to this if you think what I'm doing is crazy, 50 Iron Mans, okay, that's a full marathon, 112 miles, plus, mile bike, two miles (inaudible) in 50 states, in 50 days, with five kids in an RV.


Lesley Logan 12:14  

His partner deserves the award. But, like, obviously, like, some of those Iron Men were, like, not races, because there's like, Iron Man on a Wednesday. But the fact that he did that, that he drove, because we, my husband and I do tours, and like driving from one state to the next, some of those states are really close together. So east coast so easy, but eastern Colorado is fucking forever, just takes so long. So wow, that's impressive. I can see how that inspired you. And I want to go back to that, what you were doing. It makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of women get so used to not challenge we don't want to be wrong, because we've had to spend our entire life proving that we can do the thing that we're doing in every industry. Everywhere we're going, there's, like, some sort of proof that you are capable and confident. And so when you get to the thing that you're working so hard for, sometimes you just want to, like, be there. But then we wonder why we get a little stuck. We feel a little burnt out. We don't know who we are, and it's because there's a part of us that needs to actually challenge ourself in some way. But to turn on that key, to turn on the ignition, is really can be hard to do. It can be really challenging. We just had an episode come out where this girl, I think you'd really love her, but she said, Lisa Scholsberg said, when you're like, working with COVID mechanisms, she says, you are uncomfortable, you're not unsafe. And I think that we have to remind ourselves that we can get ourselves uncomfortable to become more of who we are, like that, like, you know what I mean? And so that's like coming up for me when I heard what you're talking about, because I, too, my family, my grandfather was a professional baseball player. My dad played sports. Everyone in my dad's side was an athlete. So there's like, not an option to not be an athlete. But I was actually never good at any of the sports. I had to work out all of the sports. I had to practice all the things I had the basketball hoop in the driveway and practice that. And you guys, I was on an undefeated team. We won the championship, and I never scored a fucking point. I was very good at rebounding, and I was very good at the good fouls, like the fouls that took a girl out, like, that, I was good at, but eye-hand coordination not happening. But like, I had to work at all those things. And even in my Pilates practice, there are people who are dancers by nature, and so when they became a Pilates instructor it's like they just moved so beautifully. And I'm like, I don't know how to do that. I have to work on that. So I resonate with that so much, because I think actually, most of us have to work at all of the things we do. There's so few people that are born with like Michael Phelps with the body that just swims really well. We think that it should come easier when really, actually, most of the most impressive stories are the ones that had to work really hard at it and be uncomfortable. And I want to highlight what you said, you have to learn to not be a people pleaser. You have to learn how to enforce boundaries. Because the only way to get to whatever the goal is, whether it is bodybuilding or, you know, 48 in 48 days, or whatever that is, you have to actually go what's is this really important to me right now that's going to take me from this. So can I do that in two months? And see them, then? We've still, like, it's a good practice for us. 


Kelsey Lensman 15:03  

Oh, and I, oh, there's a few points I really (inaudible). So, number one, I love the unsafe that you're uncomfortable, not unsafe. Because I think, and I don't want to generalize women, but I'm going to call us out here is like, we can get very emotional about certain things, and in a yes, emotions are good, and please express them. But from a negative extent, what I, hear me out for a second is when we are not good at something, it's like, then our brain will start going, oh my gosh, you're terrible. Oh my gosh, you're not made for this. Oh, you can't do this. And it's like, our emotions will start to spin and spiral. 


Lesley Logan 15:34  

Oh, it'll start to point out everything you're not good at, too. It'll just do all of them. 


Kelsey Lensman 15:37  

Everything and I'm somebody like, okay, let's, get up. Let's take it back. What's physiologically going on, you know? And it's like, okay, when we can understand that our brain is wired for safety. It's not wired for our happiness or our fulfillment. It's wired, literally, just to keep us alive. And so when we do the new thing, we step out of the comfort zone. Your brain is like, whoa. What is happening? This is unpredictable, this is unknown. And it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad for you, or that it's not beneficial, but it's just like your physiology is trying to keep you safe, which is good, it's great, right? We want to stay alive, but when it's conflicting with actually where we are destined to go or or the growth that we want to have, we have to understand those emotions, they're not bad, but we can't live by them, you know, and that's incredibly important.


Lesley Logan 17:46  

You are, I think you're, I mean, like, so Gay Hendrick's my favorite authors, and he has the book The Big Leap, and we got, I was like. 


Kelsey Lensman 17:57  

Oh, that is my favorite book. I just recommended it. 


Lesley Logan 16:35  

Oh, it's, I've been recommending it since 2018 and I got to have him on the podcast. He's been on the podcast. He was episode 400 go listen. He's so amazing, but he talks about the things that we do when we go outside of our comfort zone. And so one of those is worry. One of those is get sick. There's like, different we pick fights. One of those is look for all the things that didn't go well. So we have a win, and then we're like, yeah, but this isn't working, and I felt so called out by that, but it goes to your point. When we start to like, we have a bad day, we go, we try to do something new or challenging for us, and it doesn't go the way we want it or the way we thought it would. And then for some of us, because our cope like, not our way of putting ourselves back in our comfort zone, is going oh, this didn't go well, and then this didn't go well, and we started like, and then it's this whole thing when actually, you picked up a heavier weight, or you tried a new recipe, or you went for a job, and that's the thing that didn't go well. These other things had probably zero to do with that. There's a correlation, but not a causation. And so we could, let's just focus on the one thing, because, yes, we should absolutely feel our feelings. I think that's one of the most beautiful things about women is that we can, but we can't, then let that feeling tell us all the other things we're not doing well, so that we get so distracted by the fact that we also don't have a clean house and our car is a mess and this, right, that we forget the goal was that I tried to do X thing, and I didn't do it well today, but I have more information. And I think we just need this is where we need women like you, Kelsey, that's why this, hopefully this podcast helps people, but also friends in our life, to go, oh, actually, hold on, hold on. All of this stuff has nothing to do with the main thing that made you feel this way in this moment. And what can we do? What can we learn from that?


Kelsey Lensman 18:19  

That's so good. That actually really hits home with me, and I'll be incredibly transparent here, like the Mission 48 thing, right? A whole big campaign took me a year to put together, and a lot of people asked me before, like, okay, Kelsey, what is success for you with this Mission 48 and I definitely got caught in what my expectation was for all of it is, I had crazy high expectations, right? Like, oh, I wanted to be here and here, even if I didn't consciously decide that, I think subconsciously, it's like this was a failure, even though I know failure is just feedback, but this is a failure if it didn't go this specific way. And I'll be honest with you, whenever you're in pursuit of the big goal, there's some things that are going to pan out, and there's some things they're not going to pan out, the way that you want. And so after Mission 48 it was a success in some capacities, and there were so many learnings in other capacities. And it was interesting, because after that my brain was like, man, that didn't pan out to the way that you wanted it, or it didn't go to the extent that you wanted to, even if, in some ways it did. And so it was very similar to your point of that little voice, or those little parts of you are going to pull up to try to almost throw stones at the thing that you did. And I have to continually remind myself, Kels, you just did something epic. You pursued. You had the courage. And I don't say this for me, but I say this for also people listening. You have the courage that not many people would have ever even had to pursue that, let alone to finish, let alone to start. And so I share that, especially with your audience, and not, you know, just inflate my ego, but to share like, maybe this person that's listening is starting a fitness journey, maybe that person that's listening is starting a business. The courage in the pursuit is something that you should be so damn proud of, and the courage in the continual persistence is something that you get to really be proud of from a daily, actual standpoint. I think more people need to hear that, because we just see the outcome, and we think, okay, if it's not exactly the way that I thought it was, then it's not how it's panned out. 


Lesley Logan 20:17  

So you, yes, you bring up something that comes to my mind. So I was watching a workshop on fear. Sometimes people like are afraid of doing an exercise. And I'm like, I chose this exercise for you because I know your body can do it, but they have a fear of whatever that movement is. For whatever reason. Some people are afraid to go upside down, things like that. And so in this workshop I was watching, she brought up this one interesting thing that we actually get dopamine from the journey, not the completion. We think we have to finish the thing to get the celebratory results and everything, which, yes, there's though that does happen. But actually you get a dopamine high. You get a hit of dopamine in the pursuit of trying the thing out. So if you are trying to do a handstand, you can get the actual same feelings of awesomeness just trying to kick up into a handstand and coming back down, you're not even actually holding it. It's a very, very cool thing. And so I think that, like we we stop ourselves because we get obsessed, but we get frustrated right before we stop that process, because we go, I didn't do that right. You have those 40 events, and not everything went the way you wanted. I totally understand that we've had, we have we're about to on our seventh winter tour, our seventh tour. I'll be on winter tour. It's our biggest tour. It's got 23 cities, and three cities sold out in 24 hours. So five cities sold in 48 hours. And of course, of course, I can look at, oh, these cities haven't sold anything, and we start to focus on, what the fuck why aren't these? And then, like, what does that mean? Would it be like, you, it's, you know. So here's the thing, Kelsey and I can talk about this like we're experts, because we just we experience ourselves. We are not perfect. And the thing is, though, at some point we stop the spiral, and we become an observer and a reflector and go hold on, what's going on here. And I think the quicker you can do that, the quicker we can stop our the process of the spiral or the searching for everything goes wrong and stop, stop that you get that muscle be much faster. It means quicker recovery and more space to do the thing that you want to be doing.


Kelsey Lensman 22:14  

I love it. Everything you said just hits home with me. Hits home with me. So deeply. 


Lesley Logan 22:18  

Okay, so what are you most excited about right now? You did a year of planning to do a 48 day, 48 event thing, and then what? Because, like, I don't believe in like, never, ever stop. I think that some people, once they hit one goal, they have another goal, and they never just sit and soak it up. But also, you clearly are someone who has something that they're working on. That's what lights you up. 


Kelsey Lensman 22:40  

It's funny. After Mission 48 which was (inaudible) a year ago. So this is 2024 when this is recorded. It was 2023. Literally a year ago, almost to the date that I finished it. And after that, I was in contemplative mode. It changed me in ways where I got I like to say it this way, best way to say it is like it was such a big pattern interrupted my life. It was different. As you know, when you travel for 48 days, you're not waking up, working out, going to work, come home, eat dinner, you're not in the monotony of it, which there is value to routine, but at the same time, when you just kind of keep going in that monotony over and over a month goes by and you're like, I don't even know what to do with my life. I don't even know what happened. And so for 48 days, it was just completely pattern interrupt. And so after that, it gave me a new perspective. Les, okay, what is your life going to look like differently after this Kels? There's certain things that you're going to stop doing when you come home. There's going to be certain hard decisions that you're going to make, that you're actually going to have the courage to make after. And so the beginning of the year was a lot more, I almost say, like, regrounding. It's like, okay, I made some really hard decisions personally and professionally that I didn't want to make, but I knew that I had to, and I knew that it was in alignment with me. And this would have been the spring time.I ran a company. It was called Empower Fitness, and we ended up not getting the trademark back for that in the spring, which at the moment, I was like, oh, dang it. Like, that's what we do, like our own strength events around the country, and that's all of it. But I always say there's, it's for a reason. And so it made me really challenge myself to think, okay, Kels, what do you want to build? Yes, you're individually but like, what do you want to build from a company, from a mission, from a movement standpoint? And so that has led to, now, it's actually interesting timing. So I just dropped it four days ago, but I rebranded my whole company, and it's a whole new vision where it's an Xpand Your Limits. XYL, you can kind of see it from the video short. 


Lesley Logan 24:27  

Oh, I love it. 


Kelsey Lensman 24:28  

Yeah. And it's all about different events that challenge women outside of their comfort zone. And so we have all women's strength events around the country where we've had ages 14, no, no, seven to 72 years old, where they're trying to get as much weight as they can. So that's one division. We also have an endurance division, so running and biking, we have an outdoors division, so it's like rocking and military style events. And then we have our last one, I think you would hit with this is it's a resilience division, where it's breath work, cold plunge, sauna, like really teaching yourself how to decompact your nervous system.


Lesley Logan 25:00  

That's definitely my alley. I'm in there. I have a cold plunge in my house. So, yes. 


Kelsey Lensman 25:06  

I wish I had that. Oh, dang. 


Lesley Logan 25:08  

Okay, here so easy. We maybe you don't have an extra bathroom. We have an extra bathroom and it has a tub. Live in a house with just two people and three bathrooms. So we took the tub. There's a company that has it's kind of like what they do for jellyfish tanks. So we just filled the tub up on Tuesday mornings, and then we put these tubes in, and it makes the water super cold. This piece of equipment wasn't it was like 500 bucks as opposed to, like the $11,000 plunge, which I would love to have, but that's a lot of money. So anyways, it keeps our bathtub water at 50 degrees. We can make it colder, but that's where we're at right now, 50 degrees. And so my husband, I use it every morning, and then on Tuesday mornings, we drain it, it gets the tub, gets clean, and we redo it. And we do it every morning for several minutes, (inaudible) yeah, I'll send I'll send it to you. And then we I have a sauna blanket. And so I love my sauna. Oh, Brad has already heard. Brad's already heard guys, so I already have an affiliate link for her. We'll make sure we put it in the notes. But anyways, it is, uh, so I have a sauna blanket in the house, like I am, and then obviously I teach breath work. But I'm obsessed with this stuff because I can't sit still and meditate. But I like these practices because my ADHD gets to think about something else while I'm trying to meditate.


Kelsey Lensman 26:22  

Yeah, and I think there's so much value as you probably experience is like when you physically do something you didn't think you could do. It sometimes gives you more courage in business or personal relationships to make the hard decision or to pursue that thing. 


Lesley Logan 26:37  

100% Kelsey. It is what I say to people all the time, even their Pilates practice like you do your Pilatespractice and you spend time with your mind and body connection. You're like, wow, I just did this really hard thing. It is part of the confidence building and doing hard things. Or, oh, I can't do this, but I can do this. And it's like just that habit of telling yourself, I'm not able to do this yet, but I can do this. It helps you seek out in other problems, like I was able to do that. So I love so you have these three divisions, three divisions, four divisions. How many?


Kelsey Lensman 27:04  

 Four with resilience, yeah, four with resilience. 


Lesley Logan 27:05  

That is so awesome. That is so cool. You, like, I hope you. I hope when your events ever come to Vegas I want to come. 


Kelsey Lensman 27:13  

Oh, I'll message you. Yeah. So we're actually expanding out right now, just in different states. Our lifting, so we've done that for a few years has been in different states, but now is like the next step, with all the other divisions, with the rebrand. So we'll get on it. I'm excited. 


Lesley Logan 27:25  

I mean, you guys, we're all hearing this now, and we're watching Kelsey grow. I'm like, I knew her win.


Kelsey Lensman 27:29  

She first rebranded to this. That's company, where it's going, which I'm really excited about. And then I just value not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, I think it, there's just so much value to that. And it was funny, because not that lifting isn't hard for me anymore, but it's, I enjoy it. It's fun. It's not kind of that same discomfort. And I hate running. I do not like running. It is not my favorite, but I'm like, all right, Kels, you gotta walk the walk, girl. And so that's when I sign up for the 100 miler, and it has I still don't like running fully. I have more respect for it, like I always say, I found respect for running and the discipline of it, but it's not like, oh, let's go run 16 miles today.


Lesley Logan 28:12  

No, I was a professional runner for a bit, and even then, I didn't. I enjoyed how I felt afterwards, and I enjoyed running with my girlfriends, but I actually didn't like the running.


Kelsey Lensman 28:22  

Yeah, I ran 16 this morning, and I was like, oh, I'm good on that one.


Lesley Logan 28:26  

Yeah, yeah, that's why you need this cold punch and then some Pilates mat side kicks and single I've got a whole little workout for you, because it will. I never had any any injury running or pain running ever. And I, after my first marathon, the next day, I like, walk up a flight of stairs and I didn't feel it. So because what people don't realize is, when you are doing anything, running, cycling, it's all on that frontal plane. If you strengthen your side body, you actually have way more balance. You don't trip when you're tired, and it offsets the load there. So I'll send it to you.


Kelsey Lensman 29:02  

That's what I can notice, not to get nerdy about this, but real quick mental stuff, is I can notice, like, my glute (inaudible) because I'm so much just in this pain going forward, is I noticed one, it's working a lot more, but also, like, I need to be really proactive about that, because that's going to help my hips. So.


Lesley Logan 29:16  

I have a whole thing for you. When I was a professional runner, I was sponsored, and I actually used to train elite runners, and they all were in the Boston Marathon the same year of the Boston bombing. But all of them, they were elite. So I wasn't, I wasn't there. I didn't. I am a sponsored runner because I was training elite athletes, and I actually, in a relay did win the LA Marathon with my relay partner, but as a, not as like a solo person. At any rate, they all were injury free, and their times were faster because of the mat work that we did before or after. We did it before on a long run day and after on a speed work day. But it is true, if you don't, it gets tighter and then that starts to affect your lower back, and it's a whole chain. So anyways, You are awesome. This is so cool. You have to let us know how your 100 mile goes. We better stay in touch, because I. 


Kelsey Lensman 30:04  

It's December 30th this year. 


Lesley Logan 30:06  

December 30th, this is how you're gonna wrap the year? 


Kelsey Lensman 30:09  

So it's this, oh, this event is cool. So it's called Across the Year. So it events that finish throughout the end of the year and then start the beginning. So I'll be running literally as the clock ticks to 2025, you can think of (inaudible).


Lesley Logan 30:22  

Yeah but you have to have some friends along the way, right? Like friends with pouches of food and stuff, yeah? So cool. Okay, we're gonna take a brief break and find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you. 


Lesley Logan 30:34  

All right, Kelsey, you're freaking awesome. I don't know. I can't be the only person who's like, anyone listens like I want to be friends with Kelsey. How do people get to hang out with you? Because your energy is so amazing. It's so contagious. And what you're doing, I think most of the women here would want to challenge themselves in one of those ways. I, don't let the rucking scare you guys. There's a few other things that she mentioned she does.


Kelsey Lensman 30:57  

That's so good. That's so good. I appreciate you. No, this was a just such a good time, and I appreciate, one, you having me on but also people listen, too.


Lesley Logan 31:03  

Yeah. So where do you hang out with the rebrand? Where's your website? Where can they work with you? Don't you have a book coming out?


Kelsey Lensman 31:08  

I do. So next year, this has been this time next year is a book coming out. But my social, so Kelsey Lensman, @KelseyLensman, everything is on there, and then you'll see our company Xpand Your Limits on social, and then Xpand Your Limit not the s .com is where we'll have everything, too.


Lesley Logan 31:25  

I love it. We'll have all those in the show notes. Make sure you guys all find her follower, see if she's got an event where you are at. You have inspired us in so many ways already. But for our overachievers, perfectionist people who are just like, hold on. What's the what's my first next step? Bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us? 


Kelsey Lensman 31:42  

I'm going to say this because this is the first thing from my brain is sign up for something that scares the crap out of you. I think that is such an actionable step that you will learn, not if, you will learn so much about yourself, and it will challenge you to level up in ways that something not on the calendar won't. So sign up for not, not us. You don't need to do XYL stuff. You're more than welcome to, but whether it be a Spartan Race or race, or anything that you do, sign up for something, show up and endure the process and learn a lot about yourself in the process of it. 


Lesley Logan 32:11  

I love that. Here in Vegas, they have a circus school, and they have like, 40,000 square feet or something. Brad will correct me on the recap, but it's insanity. They even have physical therapists and doctors on site, because obviously Vegas has the circus acts, all these different professional dancers. And so they can actually be members there, and they can see doctors there, and then get taped and whatever. And they can go and practice their whatever, right? But there's a trapeze, there's those Olympic trampolines, there's Lyra, there's all these different things. And so I went to the tryout, like the trial day. It was me. I was 40 years old guys with, like, two seven year olds. So two seven year old boys, that was what was going on. And it was the most to your point. It was uncomfortable in a 40 year old with two seven year olds. Like, okay, did I sign for the wrong class? What is going on here? And then to be jumping on this humongous, not a rebound or like an Olympic trampoline, but you fly up. You're like a story off the ground. You go through all that, you go you get frustrated in a second, be like, hold on. I'm learning. I'm trying to have fun, and it's really quite a fun challenge. I did not do the trapeze. I didn't know it was a 90-minute class. And I'm okay with that, because I'll just be never like, hold that bar. So that's just my avenue. But until we can ensure my whole body from Lloyds of London, or whatever it is, we got to rein it in. But it was really fun. And then the next year, so this in 2024 I signed up for pole classes because I was like, I go, feel like a sexy person. I feel like one of those awkward people. And pole was so it was such a challenge, because you think you're strong, and then you try to hold on to a pole that's slippery. Then it gives you every pay your pole dancers more everyone just pay them more. So I agree with this Be It Action Items wholeheartedly. 


Lesley Logan 33:51  

Kelsey, thank you so much for being part of the Be It Till You See It podcast. I can't wait to see what you do next. We are going to follow your amazing journey, and please keep us posted on the book and all the stuff that you're doing, because I think you're gonna inspire so many women from around the world. Everyone, make sure you follow Kelsey. Check out Xpand Your Limits. Make sure you share this podcast with someone else. Maybe you need a buddy to like, do something scary with. That's okay. That could be a really fun way to get to do things and until next time, Be It Till You See It. 


Lesley Logan 34:21  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.


Brad Crowell 35:02  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.


Lesley Logan 35:08  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.


Brad Crowell 35:12  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.


Lesley Logan 35:20  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.


Brad Crowell 35:23  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.



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